‘Cristiano Ronaldo made me do the splits. I thought, ‘This can’t happen again.’ I didn’t want someone to take my career away from me’ Ashley Cole on his major tournament battles with the Portuguese icon

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal - Stars of Euro 2020.

During the mid-2000s, few one-on-one duels in international football were as thrilling as Cristiano Ronaldo’s battles against Ashley Cole.

England and Portugal were pitted together in the knockout stages of the 2004 European Championship and the World Cup two years later, as the pair - widely considered the best in their respective positions - battled on the world stage.